In response to the pestering rumors constantly making headlines, with regard to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand - most recently from publisher bitComposer - the Kiev-based developer GSC Game World has just come out with a press release stating that it - together with Sergey Grigorovich - remain the sole owners of all the intellectual property rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and the brand overall, including all the trademarks, the game universe, the technology etc. "This can be easily verified with the trademark services online", the studio points out.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a survival/FPS game based on fictional events of the second accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a warning (...)

Publisher 1C Company has just announced the development of IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, a new entry in this venerable combat flight simulator franchise, planned for an early 2014 release. The game is being developed by 777 Studios (makers of Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War), with whom they have formed a joint venture and a new studio named 1C Game Studios.

This venture brings two of the world's leading combat flight-simulation franchises and development teams together under one banner to form a new, dynamic team led by (...)

A new Final Fantasy game? A new franchise? Who knows... For now, Square Enix is teasing us with an enigmatic trailer for what appears to be a fantasy game, with an official website promising to unveil this "Secret Title" in summer 2012, according to ANN's report. However, the website is also displaying a countdown that will reach zero one week from now, on March 30... So I'd say that's when the game will be unveiled, for a summer release.

Another one of BioWare's works is getting the anime treatment! Following last month's movie Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (also releasing in North America this Spring), FUNimation is once again collaborating with the awesome-RPG maker for another animated project, this time based on the sci-fi action RPG franchise Mass Effect. This newly announced anime film is titled Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, and it's being co-produced with the Japanese studios Production I.G and T.O. Entertainment.

The project's official website is streaming a (region-locked) teaser trailer, along with offering the following synopsis, which labels Mass Effect: Paragon Lost as being a prequel (...)

Last month's dazzling PS Vita game Gravity Rush - released in Japan as Gravity Daze - has also been confirmed for a North American release, on June 12. Marking the announcement is a new Gravity Rush trailer which Sony is offering, along with a few screenshots posted on its PlayStation blog. Although that earlier video with 15 minutes of gameplay still kicks a whole lot more gravity-defying ass.

Meanwhile, the game's Japanese version will enjoy three weeks of downloadable content, with one new DLC pack launching each week, starting from March 22. (...)

Sure enough, Square Enix has officially announced the Final Fantasy XIII-2 sequel today at its "1st Production Department Premiere" event, confirming last week's rumor. But perhaps of more interest seems to have been the new Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer that was shown there. You can watch it here in a low-quality Ustream version, for now, until a HD version is released next week.

Aside from these two titles, other topics discussed at Square's event included the game formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII (now called Final Fantasy Type-0), the game formerly known as Kingdom Hearts 3D (now called Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance), and the game still known as Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. A bit more about each of them, below. (...)

If web domain registrations are ever to be trusted (and they often are), the slightly controversial J-not-RPG Final Fantasy XIII may be getting a sequel in the numeric spirit of Final Fantasy X-2. As one twitterer noticed, the FinalFantasy13-2Game.com domain has been registered this January 10 by "Corporation Service Company" - a name that's also listed on other official Square Enix domains, including FinalFantasy13Game.com.

Further supporting this speculation is the fact that Square Enix will hold a pretty big event next Tuesday, January 18, to announce new game titles. For now, they're keeping a tight lip, silently avoiding requests for comments. Not that it would be a particularly unexpected confirmation, at this point.

Well, I guess I'll be keeping an eye on this one for a few more days...

That "Dementia" trailer from a few weeks ago did a great job at not showing the upcoming sequel Dead Space 2, so this fresh batch of screenshots issued by Electronic Arts should be a welcome addition - as should be the EA Showcase video interview with the game's executive producer, Steve Papoutsis, in which he talks a bit about the game. Yeah, they tend to do that in interviews...

The horror shooter sequel Dead Space 2 is once again developed by Visceral Games for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The story picks up three years after the original, with Isaac Clarke returning for another heart-pounding adventure, taking the fight to the Necromorphs in this thrilling action-horror experience. New tools to gruesomely slice and dismember the Necromorphs complement Isaac's signature plasma cutter, empowering him as he meets new characters, explores epic zero-G environments, and fights against a relentless Necromorph onslaught.

Along with yesterday's new teaser trailer labeled "Leave A Message", Electronic Arts also revealed the release date for this year's Medal of Honor shooter: October 12, 2010 in North America, and October 15 in Europe. Being the first game in the series to completely change the theater of operations, leaving the battlefields of WWII for a more contemporary kind of conflict, EA saw fit to reset its title to Medal of Honor - period.

As the publisher's press-release-for-dummies explains, this "emotionally charged trailer" shows "a U.S. Army Ranger platoon heading into combat aboard a helicopter. The chaos and uncertainty of the mission is belied by the reassuring voice of one of the Rangers as he reaches out to his family back home" (insert crocodile tears). Aaanyway...

The setting chosen for this new Medal of Honor is that of war-torn Afghanistan, as seen though the lens of a small band of fictional characters. Players will be introduced to (...)